Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 10/19/09
Meeting Opened at: 4:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson, Jon Sylbert and Wayne Burkhart
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Sue Protheroe for the Monterey News, Peter Chait, Donald Clawson, Assistant Assessor, Maynard Forbes, Director of Operations, Michael Storch (Finance Committee), Maryellen Brown (Finance Committee), Steve Mack (Foresight Land Svcs), Rob Hoogs (Foresight Land Svcs) and Dan Moriarity (Finance Committee)
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. B&E on Point Rd.; this is under investigation.
2. MVA on Sandisfield Rd.; multiple charges are being pressed.
3. Assisted the GBPD.
4. False alarms Mt Hunger Estates and Main Rd.
5. Tree across the power lines on Fairview Rd.
6. Dog bite reported to the police station; this was referred to the ACO.
7. Summons delivered to Mt Hunger Rd.
8. Assisted a resident with a flat tire.
9. The recent H1N1 meeting that discussed how the vaccines will be distributed was reviewed.
The board met with Town Accountant, Barbara Gauthier to review the following items:
1. Warrants were signed. B. Gauthier stated that the bills for the overrun at the Cemetery are on there so the Board will have to decide tonight with the Finance Committee if they will be paying them or not.
2. B. Gauthier informed the Board that there will be an audit starting on Monday.
The board met with Inter-Departmental Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. Weekly report was reviewed.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 10.5.09 were approved with a minor correction.
2. The Board held a classification hearing with Donald Clawson to set the tax rate. A single tax rate of 5.35 is being recommended and the levy capacity is at $213,133.93. The current tax rate is 5.21. The residential value is over $4million. A motion was made to approve the single tax rate of 5.35, which was seconded and unanimously approved. The Board signed the required paperwork.
3. Steve Mack and Rob Hoogs of Foresight Land Services were present at the Select Boards request to review the proposal received for the RT 23 paving job.
a. J. Sylbert asked for a quick summary of what the engineering work entails. If all goes forward this will be a Mass Highway approved project. The town will be required to have 3 submittals (different completion percentages of the project 25, 75 and final) as well as a public comment period.
b. W. Burkhart asked why the Board should go forward with the engineering study when it doesn’t sound like we’ll be receiving any ARRA funding. Steve explained that if you already have the engineering plans and don’t get the funding through ARRA it will move you up more quickly on the TIP list.
c. M. Storch asked how long the engineered plans would be good for in case this project isn’t approved through ARRA.
d. Jon made a motion to negotiate with Foresight for a price on the project. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. Steve provided an initial scope of work. The Board will review the scope and fee and get back to Foresight within a week.
4. M. Forbes, the Finance Committee, the Town Accountant and the Board discussed that the $80k for the above-mentioned engineering study would be coming out of M. Forbes’ Chapter 90 money and Jon feels that it is not an insignificant amount of money and feels that the Town should be given a chance to approve this at a special town meeting. It’s understood that this $80k could be used for other projects and it should be the town’s decision to make.
Jon also noted that he will not sign off on the Cemetery overrun of $15k without town approval at a special town meeting.
M. Brown asked some questions about past survey and resurfacing work done on RT 23 in the past and about the expected life span of the resurfacing; M. Forbes stated it’s about 15-20 years but it will need to be renewed and kept maintained. D. Moriarity asked why this wasn’t sent out to bid and the Board explained why it had to go through a request for proposal process as was done. The resurfacing project if paid for by the Town in today’s prices would be about $1.1 million.
M. Forbes is recommending that the $80k fee to Foresight be paid for out of the Chapter 90 money available to Monterey (which is usually used on road projects). W. Burkhart stated that he’d rather go ahead and approve the project and accept Foresight now and not go to a special town meeting. M. Brown asked what position the Town would be in if a special town meeting were called and the voters said no; M. Brown felt that if a town meeting vote wasn’t necessary it shouldn’t be brought to a town meeting vote, M. Forbes and B. Gauthier agreed.
A motion was made to accept Foresight’s quote/proposal and to fund the project as M. Forbes recommends. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved by the Select Board and Finance Committee. The Board will write an informational article for the Monterey News.
Cemetery Overrun: The Board asked B. Gauthier to explain the various ways that an overrun gets paid for in the middle of a year: 1. special town meeting, 2. use reserve fund money or 3. Have a special town meeting after the money is paid. The Finance Committee is the only committee authorized to transfer money from the reserve fund. M. Brown felt that it was a huge overrun. It was asked who approved the overrun. Since it was done under the equipment bid it’s considered a highway project. M. Brown stated that this job should’ve gone out to bid and not done through the Highway Department contractors. Jon was also under the impression that this was supposed to go out to bid. It was approved at town meeting for $42k. M. Forbes explained some of the
causes that created the $15k overrun: The cemetery committee didn’t allow for the right amount of trees to be cut that needed to be cut, when the entrance was dug out it was very wet and drainage had to be installed as well as a special fabric. The Board asked how the Cemetery Committee came up with an estimate of $42k and no one was sure. Both the Select Board and Finance Committee were concerned that no members of the Cemetery were present tonight (D. Moriarity stated he asked one of the members to attend but they declined). A discussion ensued about who was responsible for the Cemetery Committee and how they spend their money; it was noted that they are an elected Board and should be held accountable by the voters for not having overseen the project properly.
B. Gauthier noted that she was never made aware by the Cemetery Committee that there was going to be a possible overrun until the final bill was submitted.
M. Storch made a motion to take the money out of the reserve fund and pay the remaining bills. J. Sylbert asked if money should be appropriated for an unanticipated cost without town approval. B. Gauthier stated that the reserve fund can be used for overages with Finance Committee approval, the problem is that other accounts are going to need funds from there and it will need to be replenished. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously by the Finance Committee. $15,072.33 was approved to be transferred from the reserve fund to pay the overrun.
5. A motion was made to authorize Don Clawson to electronically sign the LA5 for the Board of Selectmen.
6. At the recommendation of the Cultural Council the Board appointed Lynne Leavitt to a 3 year term on the Monterey Cultural Council.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:00pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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